1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator and an apparatus for guiding the displacement of a display device installed on a door of the refrigerator. Particularly, the present invention relates to a display device guiding apparatus of a refrigerator, which can prevent a display device mounted on the refrigerator from interfering with an outer wall and other components of the refrigerator by preventing the display device from being inclined in a direction when the display device pivots rightward and leftward, thereby allowing the display device to be smoothly projected frontward. More particularly, the present invention relates to a refrigerator and a display device guiding apparatus of the refrigerator, which allow a user to watch the image displayed on the display device without suffering from or being subjected to a dead (i.e., unviewable) angle and view angle problems.
2. Description of the Related Art
A refrigerator includes a main body, a refrigerating compartment for storing food under a refrigeration state and a freezing compartment for storing food under a freezing state. The refrigerating and freezing compartments are defined in the main body and selectively opened and closed by refrigerating and freezing doors, respectively. The refrigerator is designed to generate cool air using refrigerant going through a series of processes such as compression, condensation, expansion, and evaporation processes. The cool air is supplied to the refrigerating and freezing compartments to lower the temperature therein.
In recent years, in order to improve the user's convenience, a water purifying system or a display device has been installed on the door.
The user can identify the current state such as the temperature and humidity state of the refrigerator through the display device. When a large-sized display device is installed on the door, the user can enjoy a variety of services such as the internet, TV and movie. Therefore, it will be more preferable for the user that a display device as large as possible is installed on the door.
Meanwhile, in order to install the display device on the door of the refrigerator, it is preferable that a flat display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a plasma display panel (PDP) that is relatively thin is used to prevent the insulation thickness of the door from being reduced. However, although the flat display device can solve the insulation thickness problem of the door, it may provide a dead angle at which the screen of the display device is hidden by, for example, a door handle and thus the user cannot see the image on the screen of the display device. Furthermore, since the flat display such as the LCD and PDP has an inherent view angle problem, the user can clearly watch the image on the screen within a predetermined angle range.
To solve the above problem, Korean Patent Application No. 10-2000-0033709 discloses a structure for installing the display device on the refrigerator. The structure is designed to pivot the display device up and down.
However, since a display device receiving portion must be curved in response to the pivotal angle of the display device, a thickness of the door is affected in relation to the size of the radius of the curved portion. When the depth of the receiving portion is increased, the insulating efficiency of the refrigerator is deteriorated. Therefore, an additional insulating member must be further installed.
Furthermore, since the pivotal hinges are formed on left and right sides of the display device, the pivot direction of the display device is limited in a vertical direction. Therefore, the view angle problem in the left and right directions and the dead angle problem caused by the door handle cannot be still solved.